Cinema
Myriad of Lights
萬家燈火
Shen Fu · 1948
Synopsis
In postwar Shanghai, Hu Zhiqing, a modest office clerk, lives in a small flat with his wife, their daughter and a servant. A letter tells him that his mother and his brother's family are leaving the countryside, where life has become too hard, to move in with him; his wife is already anticipating the rise in expenses. Inflation runs out of control, nine people crowd into the flat, Hu loses his job, his brother takes on odd jobs, and the daughter-in-law clashes with the mother-in-law.
Context
The film was produced in 1948 by Kunlun, from a screenplay by Shen Fu and Yang Hansheng; it runs two hours. Lan Ma plays Hu, and Shangguan Yunzhu his wife. The China Project presents it as the work of a Lianhua veteran, with realistic characters, though at times heavy-handed. The producers, Xia Yunhu and Ren Zongde, are the ones who later made Crows and Sparrows for the same company. In English, the title is also rendered as Lights of Ten Thousand Homes.
Who it is for
A sound film of two hours, without spectacular action; no French release is established.
Prizes and reception
Asia Weekly ranked it among the hundred best Chinese films of the twentieth century, and the Hong Kong Film Awards placed it ninety-first on their list.